Division News...

West Virginia Division of Culture and History
to schedule statewide arts listening tours

August 17, 2010

The West Virginia Division of Culture and History in collaboration with the West Virginia Commission on the Arts (WVCA) will be conducting statewide listening tours throughout the month of September. The arts section of the Division will host a series of free meetings to listen to the needs and comments of any interested community members. The information gathered will be used to develop new programs and review policies for grants available to communities, schools and individual artists with state and federal funding.

Arts administrators, arts educators, artists, art patrons and interested members of the general public are invited to participate in these informal conversations. The arts staff will provide discussion starter questions to begin the conversation at each listening tour stop. A complete list of the tour stops is attached.

Jeff Pierson, director of arts for the Division, says “These tours allow us the opportunity to gather the information from the community which is vital in our efforts to provide arts experiences to the state of West Virginia.”

For more information about the programs and services of the WVCA, contact Pierson at (304) 558-0240, ext. 717, or by e-mail at jeff.a.pierson@wv.gov.

The West Virginia Division of Culture and History, an agency of the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts, brings together the state’s past, present and future through programs and services in the areas of archives and history, the arts, historic preservation and museums. Its administrative offices are located at the Culture Center in the State Capitol Complex in Charleston, which also houses the state archives and state museum. The Culture Center is West Virginia’s official showcase for the arts. The agency also operates a network of museums and historic sites across the state. For more information about the Division’s programs, visit www.wvculture.org. The Division of Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.